After 13 years of subscriptions, EVE Online’s latest update embraces free-to-play gamers

EVE Online has been a subscription game for 13 years, but with its Ascension update being launched today, the game from Iceland’s CCP will have a free-to-play option for new players.

The company hopes that will lead to an influx from free-to-play will reinvigorate a community of hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Andie Nordgren, executive producer of the game for the past two years, told us in an interview that the new players will be welcomed into the EVE universe with a tutorial that lasts two to five hours. That tutorial, playable within five minutes of the start of downloading, is the result of many years of experimentation with how to bring players aboard.